Jesus, Klingons, and Defense Spending

According to this news story, the Pentagon has spent some… dubious dollars. Among the maligned projects:

• $100,000 for a 2011 workshop on interstellar space travel that included a session entitled “Did Jesus die for Klingons too?” The session probed how Christian theology would apply in the event of the discovery of aliens

Now, should we at some point discover that there are other sentient creatures out there in the universe, the question of “Did Jesus die for Klingons, too?” will become very important for Christians. The question of what creatures have souls will probably end up being the first big question, the second being: Are they sinners?

I don’t doubt that this is a big thing to ask. However, I do question whether or not the Pentagon is the group to tackle such questions. The government isn’t here to monitor religion, particularly in the United States! If they asked the question to probe whether or not security measures would have to be taken should alien contact be made, based on whether or not Christian groups would have extreme reactions, I can see this being a topic for Pentagon discussion (though I’d rather not see so many dollars being spent on it). However, if the topic was simply whether or not Jesus’ death counted for aliens…

…leave that to the theologians. Leave that to the speculators and the private citizen. The government doesn’t need to say anything about it, and the government shouldn’t say anything about it. Not their job.

Now, you as a private citizen are not the government. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’re not spending tax dollars by reading the blog. So I bring it to you: Let’s say Klingons exist.

Thank you for that provision. I like existing.

If Klingons existed… did Jesus die for them?

There are a lot of answers here, of course. My personal opinion is that if there are other sentient, ensouled creatures out there in the stars, something like Aslan would occur — God would become one of them and release them from sin, too.

I guess this isn’t “playing fair,” but for me, this falls into the realm of “If God is omnipotent can he make a rock he can’t lift?” It’s a question with the forma of logic but without the sensus that real logic requires. That’s a polite, latin-infused way of saying, “a silly question.”

I firmly believe we will never find other ensouled beings in the universe (or in *this* universe, anyway). Of course, my faith won’t be shaken if we do, but I don’t think even in the slightest that we will.

I suppose if we did find such beings I’d have to come to the same conclusions the Mikey and Jon have.

I’m really with you in general — I’m pretty sure that God, looking ahead and knowing when he’d wrap everything up, would seed life out in the cosmos if we’re going to get that far. He’s going to give us what we need — and if we end up needing to live elsewhere, he’ll provide for that.

That being said, I do NOT believe we’ll ever find anything else that would threaten our place as “crown of creation” — which means I also believe we won’t find ensouled creatures out there. If there are, though, as I said, I believe there would be an Aslan-type intersection, or incarnation, for them as well.

The way I see it, the notion that intelligent life exists outside of this planet springs from the worldview that says that we sprung up from the goo, so it must have happened elsewhere as well. From a Christian world view there is no reason to believe that aliens exist on another world.

However, I can concede that there may just be things that God has chosen not to tell us, because we didn’t need to know. Could that include extraterrestrial beings, even being with intelligence? I don’t think so. But as Ken said, there is no reason why that should shake faith in what God has told us. After all, he didn’t tell us that DNA exists, yet the discovery of DNA does not shake my faith in how God says he crafted human beings, it just leads me to marvel at what God can accomplish.

I have noodled on a story about a Christian (or group of Christians) reacting to the arrival of extra-terrestrial beings and dealing with it… But I don’t know if I want to tip my hand on that just yet.

Published by Jon

I'm a pastor in Wisconsin. Constantly writing, whether it be fiction or sermons or anything in between. Husband and father. Over all this, Christian, willing and joyful servant to good master Jesus.
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